US Legislator: citizens ‘deserve to have answers’ about #nuclear facility

Thursday, July 12th, 2018 at 5:47pm

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A state legislator says he isn’t getting any answers out of the administration of Gov. Susana Martinez to questions on a proposed interim storage site for spent nuclear fuel in southeast New Mexico.

Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, chairman of the Legislature’s Committee on Radioactive and Hazardous Materials, sent nearly 60 questions to the heads of several state departments in April.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A state legislator says he isn’t getting any answers out of the administration of Gov. Susana Martinez to questions on a proposed interim storage site for spent nuclear fuel in southeast New Mexico.

Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, chairman of the Legislature’s Committee on Radioactive and Hazardous Materials, sent nearly 60 questions to the heads of several state departments in April.

Only one responded.

“It raises the obvious conclusion that this governor and her administration have done no analysis on this project,” Steinborn said. “The citizens of the state deserve to have answers on our state’s ability to handle this facility.”

The senator wrote in a July 9 letter to the governor that the New Mexico Environment Department did respond to his questions, “but without providing substantive information on the issues raised.”

The Environment Department provided that letter to the Journal.

In it, department Secretary Butch Tongate wrote NMED would review the Environmental Impact Statement currently in progress at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission “and provide comments to the NRC as necessary.”

“The Senator’s questions should be directed to the NRC — the agency overseeing the process,” said NMED spokeswoman Katy Diffendorfer in an email.